Computer-implemented method for controlling a collaboration platform, communication and collaboration application, and communication and collaboration platform

ABSTRACT

A method can include receiving a request for a read receipt by a first user of a predetermined user group for a session. The request for a read receipt can refer to an information segment of the thread supplied with a tag by the first user. The tag can include a predetermined character string identifying at least one second user from whom the first user requests the read receipt for the tagged information segment. The second user can be identified in a database, a notification containing the information segment to at least one second user can be sent and an acknowledgment message from the second user that he has read the notification containing the information segment can then be received for assigning a read receipt to the information segment as soon as the at least one second user has read the notification.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is the U.S. national stage application ofInternational Patent Application No. PCT/EP2018/072442, filed on Aug.20, 2018, which claims priority to German Patent Application No. 10 2017119 183.6, filed Aug. 22, 2017.

FIELD

The invention relates to a computer-implemented method for controlling acollaboration platform, to a communication and collaboration applicationand to a communication and collaboration platform.

BACKGROUND

Communication and collaboration applications are becoming increasinglypopular, particularly with regard to social networks. But in thebusiness environment, it is also common today to integrate suchapplications into the workflow, where they serve users (USER) or usergroups, for example, in a given session thread or context for processinga predetermined topic.

In a session, a user group which deals with a specific topic can bedetermined or selected. The discussion posts on the topic as well asquestions and answers on the topic are received in a thread in achronological and possibly hierarchical order and displayed to the usersof the user group accordingly.

However, the documentation and control of the flow of information maymake it necessary, particularly in the business environment, for asender of information to draw the attention of one or more specificusers of the user group to a particular information segment within thethread and to expect one or more users of the user group to receivefeedback information about it. This feedback information, for example,may be a corresponding read notification so that the sender ofinformation is notified that the information segment marked by him hasbeen read by one or more users.

Read receipts are known in current communication and collaborationapplications known from prior art; however, the information flow islimited to a simple bilateral exchange of information segments, andthere is no possibility of generating the read receipt in the context ofa session related to a specific topic.

For example, e-mail systems known from prior art provide read receiptsfor read e-mails. However, with regard to bilateral user conversationsor in the case of multilateral conversations, for example, when using amailing list during the sending of e-mails, they are not embedded in thecontext of a session or shared session where only a specific topic isbeing addressed.

Applications provided in social networks such as WhatsAPP, in whichgroup conversations can also be conducted, also do not provide aselective read receipt for individually addressed group members, so auser in the group conversation has no opportunity to obtain informationas to whether or not a specific other user has read a certain segment ofsuch a group conversation.

SUMMARY

One objective of embodiments of the present invention is to provide acomputer-implemented method of controlling a collaboration platform, acommunication and collaboration application and a communication andcollaboration platform, by means of which said deficiencies areremedied, at least in part. In particular, it is desirable thatembodiments be configured so that a user of a predetermined user groupfor a session in a thread of the user group is allowed to request andreceive a read receipt selectively for one or more information segmentsof the thread from one or more predetermined users of the user group.

Embodiments according to the present invention can include acomputer-implemented method for controlling a collaboration platform isprovided, on which a communication and collaboration application(COL_APP) runs, which allows a number of users of a predetermined usergroup to communicate and collaborate about a predetermined topic in asession in which the user group participates, with posts by individualusers being collected and displayed as information segments in a thread,with the method comprising the following steps:

-   -   Receive a request for a read receipt by a first user of the        predetermined user group of the session, in which the request        for the read receipt refers to an information segment of the        thread provided by the first user and supplied with a tag, with        the tag comprising a predetermined character string identifying        at least one second user from whom the first user requests the        read receipt for the tagged information segment;    -   Identify the at least one second user in a database of the        COL_APP;    -   Send a notification containing the information segment to the at        least one second user;    -   Receive an acknowledgement message from the second user that he        has read the notification containing the information segment;        and    -   Assign a read receipt to the information segment as soon as the        at least one second user has read the notification, with the        method further comprising a step to aggregate metadata with        regard to the request of the first user for the read receipt and        the acknowledgement message from the second user, and with        information about the read receipt being transmitted to the        first user by the provision of the metadata, in particular by        displaying the metadata in a workflow-based view.

Embodiments of the method according to the invention can allow each userof a user group of a specific session running on the COL_APP on thecollaboration platform to mark individual posts of the user in the formof selectable information segments in a thread for a predetermined topicof the session and then to selectively or individually request a readreceipt from one or more predetermined users. According to theinvention, this is achieved by providing or displaying the desiredinformation on a meta-level.

According to one preferred embodiment, all users of the user group haveaccess to the aggregated metadata so that, for each user of the usergroup of a predetermined session, information is available at any timeabout which user has read which posts or information segments of thethread. The read receipt function of COL_APP is a function shared by allusers of a user group.

According to another preferred embodiment, the method further comprisesthe step of generating a status instance for the at least one seconduser. The metadata can also include:

-   -   An indication of the information segment;    -   Timestamp information regarding the time of the posting of the        information segment by the first user;    -   User information about the first user, in particular an        identification of the first user;    -   Timestamp information about the time of the receipt of the        information segment by the second user and the time of the        generation of a read receipt.

Thus, read receipts for all users of a shared session are generated anddisplayed via the communication and collaboration application in thecontext of a timestamp-based workflow. In particular, themeta-information for a session acquired from the relevant time stampinformation or data with regard to the read receipt requests andassociated acknowledgment messages for the session or thread is providedto all users of the user group.

According to yet another preferred embodiment, the method comprises thesteps of

-   -   Creating timestamp statistics based on statistical data of the        timestamp information;    -   Monitoring the timestamp statistics; and    -   Updating the statistical data of the timestamp information.

Preferably, the workflow-based view contains a sequence of individualinformation segments from the multiple information segments inchronological order within the thread for a predetermined session.

The workflow-based view may contain information as to whether the seconduser has read the information segment, with this being represented byvisual modification of the character string identifying the second user.

The visual modification can be made by underlining or highlighting theinformation segment with color. This allows the user to quicklyrecognize at a glance whether a read receipt for an identifiedinformation segment has been received or not. Other presentation forms,however, are also possible.

According to the invention, a communication and collaborationapplication is provided, which is adapted to execute a method forselectively requesting and providing a read receipt for individualinformation segments within a thread of a user group with apredetermined number of users in a session.

Furthermore, a communication and collaboration platform can be provided,which is adapted to execute a method for selectively requesting andproviding a read receipt for individual information segments within athread of a user group with a predetermined number of users in asession. The communication and collaboration platform can be a type ofcommunication apparatus that includes at least one computer device thathosts the platform. Each computer device can include hardware thatincludes a processor connected to non-transitory memory, at least oneinput device, at least one output device, and at least one interface ortransceiver.

Additional features, functions, advantages and details of the presentinvention become clearer from the following description of specificembodiments and their graphic representation in the accompanyingfigures. It is understood that features, functions, advantages anddetails of individual embodiments are transferable to other embodimentsand should also be considered as disclosed in connection with the otherembodiments, unless this is apparently unfounded for technical ornatural law reasons. In this sense, features of various embodiments canbasically always be combined with each other, and the combination canalso be understood as an embodiment of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following, the invention will be described in more detail usingexamples of preferred embodiments and with the aid of the figures.

FIG. 1 is a representation of a communication and collaborationapplication (COL_APP) according to one embodiment of the invention withdifferent logical structures;

FIG. 2 is a further representation of parts of the COL_APP according toone embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is yet another representation of parts of the COL_APP accordingto one embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 4 is an abstract view representing the step of aggregating metadatafor a session according to one embodiment of the invention.

Reference numerals used in the drawings include the below listedreference numbers:

-   1 Communication and collaboration application-   2 Session list-   3 Session-   4 “Session selection” meta-level-   5 Thread-   6 Information segment-   7-1/7-2 Metadata engine representation levels: 7-1: Information ACK,    7-2: Conversation-   8 Notification list-   9, 9′ Display-   10 Meta-level information field (display of aggregated session data)-   11 Metadata engine-   12 User status instance

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a representation of a communication and collaborationapplication (COL_APP) according to one embodiment of the invention withdifferent logical structures.

In the figure, first of all, it can be seen that on a collaborationplatform (not shown) on which the COL_APP 1 is running as a centralizedserver function, a variety of sessions were installed or created, whichis shown as session list 2 for a first user a in the display of COL_APP1. For each additional user, a corresponding view is generated byCOL_APP 1, i.e., a view in which a session list 2 is displayed with allsessions 3 running on the COL_APP 1. A predetermined number of users whoform a user group participate in each session 3, for example, to worktogether on a given topic or specific task. Furthermore, it shows how asession 3 selected by user a, with a gray background in the display andoutlined by a dashed marking, is shown for the selected session onmeta-level 4. Here the display of the selected information relevant tosession 3 can be selected, including, among others

-   -   The sequence of information segments 6 according to the active        selection of conversation 7-2 (see explanations below);    -   Information about the presence and member status of users in the        user group of a session 3; and    -   Aggregated meta-information on read receipt requests and read        receipts (available under selection ‘information ACK’ 7-1).

In the middle portion of the display for COL_APP 1, thread 5 for thesession 3 selected by user a is displayed. Here, all posts by theindividual users of a user group participating in the selected session 3are shown as information segments 6 (INFORMATION_SEGMENT), which arepresented in chronological order with regard to the time when the postsor information segments 6 were posted.

In the event that the first user a wants to monitor whether a specificsecond user b, who also belongs to the user group for this selectedsession 3, reads a specific post or a specific information segment 6 ofthread 5, he can now select the information segment 6 of interest(identified here by the dashed outline of information segment 6) andsupplied or labeled with a tag. The tag includes a predeterminedcharacter string, which identifies second user b. The second user b canthen be identified by COL_APP 1 accessing a database that is assigned toCOL_APP 1 (not shown). The first user a creates the tag identifying userb by adding ‘@<user-name>’, where “user-name” is replaced by the name ofthe second user b. The request made by the first user a for a readreceipt of the predetermined information segment 3 by the second user bis then processed by a metadata engine 11 (see FIG. 4) of COL_APP 1. Forthis purpose, metadata are aggregated by COL_APP as the centralizedserver function, which include:

-   -   An indication of the information segment 3;    -   Timestamp information with reference to the time of the posting        of the information segment 3 by first user a;    -   User information about the first user a, in particular        identification of the first user a; and    -   Timestamp information about the time of the receipt of        information segment 3 by the second user b and the time of the        generation of a read receipt.

The metadata are used to arrange the read receipt request(READ_NOTIFICATION) of the first user a in the temporal sequence of theworkflow for the selected session 3. The respectively identifiedindividual metadata information of a session is then integrated bymetadata engine 11, depending on the selection of the first user 1, atthe respective meta-level (conversation 7-1 or information ACK 7-2) intothe session presentation 6 or at aggregation level 10 (information ACK7-2).

In the right column of COL_APP 1 shown in FIG. 1, a notification list 8of the first user 1 is displayed, i.e., the list contains allnotifications of other users of session list 2 which are directed to thefirst user 1.

FIG. 2 is an abstract representation of all session lists 2 of metadataengine 11 with a detailed view of parts of COL_APP 1 according to oneembodiment of the invention with a focus on the processes for SESSION I.Here parts of the display 9 of COL_APP 1 are displayed on a screen ofthe first user a (left side of FIG. 2) and parts of the display 9′ ofCOL_APP 1 on a screen of the second user b. They are respective sessionor conversation views of a predetermined SESSION I, identified by thereference numeral 3, on the side of the first user a and on the side ofthe second user b. In each case, on the left side of the respective viewof the first user a and second user b, all session lists 2 of metadataengine 11 are displayed with sessions I, II, III, with SESSION I runningon the collaboration platform via the COL_APP 1 of the first user a andsecond user b described here. Here the first user a is a participant insession 1 or belongs to the user group for session I, but does notbelong to the user groups of session II and session III; thus, he is nota participant in sessions II and III.

The second user b, on the other hand, is a participant in all sessionsI, II, III running on the metadata engine 11. On the screen or in thedisplay 9 of COL_APP 1 for the first user a, session I is viewed, whichis indicated by the dashed outline of the designation SESSION I and theparticipating users a, b, c, who form the user group for this session.For example, if the first user a has tagged an information segment 6 fora read receipt by the second user b as described in relation to FIG. 1,then in accordance with the selection of session I on the left side ofthe display 9 of the first user a, the information is displayed for thethread 5 in which the tagged information segment 6 (represented here bythe placeholder ‘TEXT’) is located. In this case, the tag added by thefirst user a is underlined as soon as a read receipt by the second userb is present. Furthermore, it can be seen that in the marked session I,the second user b has requested a read receipt for an informationsegment selected by him from a third user c, who also has acknowledgedthe reading of the corresponding notification or of the informationsegment 6, which again is visualized by underlining the tag in thedisplay 9 of COL_APP 1.

Furthermore, the third user c has requested a read receipt for aninformation segment 6 selected by him from the first user a, who,however, has not yet acknowledged receipt of the correspondingnotification or the reading of the selected information segment 6, whichis evident due to the lack of underlining of the tag.

It is also possible to make the meta-information visible that isassociated with the time stamp information of the read receipt, forexample, via a so-called “mouse-over function” for the user a on thedisplay 9.

On the left side of FIG. 2, which shows the display 9′ of the seconduser b, who is the recipient of the information segment 6 tagged by thefirst user a, it can be seen that in the right column of the display 9′all notifications for read receipts which are managed by the metadataengine 11 are listed information segments 6 selected by users. At thetop of the right column in the display 9′, it is indicated that thefirst user a has requested a read receipt for an information segment 6belonging to session I. In addition, a fourth user d has requested aread receipt from the second user b for an information segment 6belonging to session II, and a fifth user e has requested a read receiptfrom the second user b for an information segment 6 belonging to sessionII. The notifications already acknowledged with a read receipt by thesecond user b, namely, the top and middle notifications, are visuallymarked here with a gray background. The notification not yetacknowledged by the second user b, on the other hand, does not have agray background. So the second user b recognizes at a glance whichinformation segment 6 he has already read or for which he has issued aread receipt and which, on the other hand, he has not read and stillneeds to read.

FIG. 3 is yet another representation of parts of the COL_APP 1 accordingto one embodiment of the invention. Here part of the display 9 of thefirst user a of COL_APP 1 is represented, with both columns on the left,i.e., the session list 2 and the information on thread 5, showing whathas already been explained in relation to FIG. 2. In addition, anotherfield 10 is displayed here, which represents the meta-level informationfor a read receipt of session I, which is selected by the first user a.The view presented here is a workflow-based view if Information ACK′(see FIG. 1: “session selection” meta-level 4) was selected. This viewrepresents a complete view of collected and aggregated metadata arrangedin the order of the respective timestamps with regard to the request fora read receipt for the predetermined session.

Each user of a session 3 (or here: users a, b and c of session I) isprovided with an identical view of all aggregated metadata. In theembodiment presented here, the metadata view is stored in atimestamp-based flow for read receipt requests (READ_NOTIFICATION) andread receipts (ACKnowledge notifications). Based on statistics for themetadata, which are created or available in a COL_APP aggregation engine(see FIG. 4), further assessments are possible, e.g.:

-   -   a list of users who did not respond to a read notification        request (READ_NOTIFICATION);    -   a list of users with the shortest/medium/longest response time        with regard to accessing the notifications, etc.

As already mentioned above, “TEXT” in the figure represents aplaceholder for the respective representation of an information segment6, which is composed of a TEXT header (subject line) and the contents ofthe information segment 6. The contents of the information segment 6,for example, may include text or information on other media (e.g.,files, images, videos, etc.).

FIG. 4 is an abstract view to represent the step for the aggregation ofmetadata 10 in a session 3 according to one embodiment of the invention,which is executed by the metadata engine 11 of COL_APP 1.

In this case, data is aggregated for the users of the COL_APP 1 on asession basis, thus for a respective session 3, so that a user in asession can create an individual request for a read receipt for eachinformation segment of this session 3 or of the thread 5 running in thesession 3 for one or more predetermined users of the session 3. Eachuser of the session 3, i.e., a predetermined user group, has identicalaccess to the metadata of the session 3. To enable this, the metadataengine 11 generates a separate status instance or user status instance12 individually for each session 3 for each appropriately taggedinformation segment 6. The statistical data of the status instance 12thus generated is displayed in the meta-level view of the session 3(Information ACK, see FIG. 1) and made available to all users of thesession 3, or all users of the session 3 can access it.

The workflow and tasks of the COL_APP 1 during aggregation of themetadata from the perspective of the user requesting the read receipt(e.g., the first user a) and from the perspective of the user issuingthe read receipt (e.g., the second user b) are explained in the tablesbelow, which assume that the corresponding session of the participatingusers has already been defined and created in the COL_APP 1.

TABLE 1 View of the user requesting the read confirmation (Session I,User a tags TEXT#1 for User b) Intent of the Task of the user requestinguser requesting COL_APP COL_APP Peer the read receipt the read receiptTask display Task User a in User a adds session I wants ‘@User b’ to theTEXT#1 to be selected and read and marked acknowledged information byuser b segment TEXT#1 Metadata engine TEXT#1@User 11 generates b statusinstance 12 for user b for session I and monitors timestamp statisticsfor all information segments of user b in session I User b reads TEXT# 1at time ACK#1 Metadata engine TEXT#1 @User 11 updates b is statisticaltime underlined as data read receipt User a wants User a selectsMetadata engine Metadata view to see detailed ‘Information ACK 11calculates the 10 of session records of the Session View’ 7- most recentI, as shown in read receipts 1 to access timestamp data of FIG. 4metadata the relevant session status engine

TABLE 2 View of the user issuing the read confirmation (Session I, usera tags TEXT#1 for user b) Intent of the Task of the user issuing userissuing COL_APP COL_APP Peer Task/ the read receipt the read receiptTask Display Event TEXT#1 Notification request is displayed in thenotification list 8 of user b User b in User b clicks on session I wouldthe message like to read with TEXT#1 in TEXT#1 at time the notification[time#1] list 8 Metadata TEXT#1@User TEXT#1 @User engine 11 b has a grayb is underlined updates the background in as a read status notificationlist receipt instance 12 of 8 user b for session I and monitorstimestamp statistics for the time of the ACK #1 information User a wantsto User a selects Metadata User metadata see detailed ‘Informationengine 7 view for records of the ACK session calculates the session I,as read receipts view’ 7-1 to most current shown in FIG. 4 access thetime stamp metadata data of the corresponding session status engine

While certain present preferred embodiments of a communicationapparatus, communication system, communication device, communicationterminal, non-transitory computer readable medium, and embodiments ofmethods for making and using the same have been shown and describedabove, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is notlimited thereto but may be otherwise variously embodied and practicedwithin the scope of the following claims.

1-9. (canceled)
 10. A computer-implemented method for controlling acollaboration platform on which a central communication andcollaboration application (COL_APP) runs, which allows a number of usersin a predetermined user group to communicate and collaborate on apredetermined topic in a session in which the user group participates,with posts by individual users being collected and displayed asinformation segments in a thread, the method comprising: receiving arequest for a read receipt by a first user in the predetermined usergroup of the session, wherein the request for the read receipt refers toan information segment of the thread provided by the first user and issupplied with a tag by the first user, with the tag comprising apredetermined character string identifying at least one second user fromwhom the first user requests the read receipt for the tagged informationsegment; identifying the at least one second user in a database of theCOL_APP; sending a notification to the at least one second usercontaining the information segment; receiving an acknowledgment messagefrom the at least one second user that the at least one second user hasread the notification containing the information segment; and assigninga read receipt to the information segment as soon as the at least onesecond user has read the notification; and aggregating metadata withregard to the request of the first user for the read receipt and theacknowledgment message from the second user, and transmitting the readreceipt information to the first user via the metadata such that themetadata facilitates displaying the read receipt information to thefirst user in a workflow-based view.
 11. The method according to claim10, wherein all users in the user group have access to the aggregatedmetadata.
 12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the methodfurther comprises generating a status instance for the at least onesecond user, and wherein the metadata comprising: an indication of theinformation segment; timestamp information relating to the time of theposting of the information segment by the first user; user informationwith regard to the first user including an identification of the firstuser; timestamp information about the time of receipt of the informationsegment by the second user and the time of the generation of a readreceipt.
 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the methodfurther comprises: creating timestamp statistics based on statisticaldata for the timestamp information; monitoring the timestamp statistics;and updating the statistical data of the timestamp information.
 14. Themethod according to one of claim 10, wherein the workflow-based viewcontains a sequence of individual information segments from the multipleinformation segments in chronological order within the thread of aselected session.
 15. The method according to one of claim 14, wherein,in the workflow-based view, the information about whether the seconduser has read the information segment is displayed by visualmodification of the character string identifying the second user. 16.The method according to claim 15, wherein the visual modificationcomprises underlining or colored highlighting of the informationsegment.
 17. A non-transitory computer readable medium having acommunication and collaboration application stored thereon that isadapted to define a method that is performed when a processor executesthe application, the method being for selective requesting and providingof a read receipt for individual information segments within a thread ofa user group with a predetermined number of users in a session accordingto claim
 10. 18. A communication and collaboration platform adapted toexecute a method according to claim 10.